South Coast Air Quality Management District

When times got tough for business, the South Coast Air Quality Management District became a big target. While the AQMD implements rules to clean up air pollution, businesses complained that they were being squeezed by the organization's fines and permit process. Were the complaints exaggerated? AQMD officials have tried to correct misconceptions and to make the district more "user friendly."

Radiation levels in California remain normal, air quality officials said Friday morning. "As far as our monitors go, we have not detected any increases beyond what you'd expect historically. Nothing you can attribute to Japan," said Philip Fine, atmospheric measurements manager of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the smog control agency for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Fine said he has been spot-checking radiation monitor data throughout California and the West Coast in the past few days, and nothing abnormal has shown up. Other experts have said they do expect small amounts of radioactive isotopes from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant to blow over to California as soon as Friday, but that they expected that the radiation would be well within safe limits.

Declaring that state and regional clean-air plans for the Los Angeles Basin are inadequate, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today is expected to propose a series of new smog controls, including possible "no-drive" days for commuters.

Eleven major oil refineries and industrial plants in the Los Angeles area will be forced to slash sulfur pollution by more than 2,000 tons a year under sweeping new regulations, but the move may not be enough to meet federal health standards for the region unless the state maintains strict curbs on truck pollution. The new rule, adopted by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, takes aim at airborne sulfur that, along with other pollutants, forms soot. It effectively halves the amount of sulfur oxides that can be emitted in the district, which covers Orange County and major portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

Twenty years ago, Jim Lents was just breaking into the pollution control business. He remembers reading about Earth Day, but didn't do anything to mark the occasion. As he recalls, "I don't think there were any ceremonies in Tullahoma, Tenn." At the time, Lents was a rocket combustion expert at the University of Tennessee Space Institute. But, with the environmental movement gaining momentum, he found himself becoming more interested in emissions than missiles.

A federal district judge will hear arguments today over whether an air-pollution control agency issued invalid emission credits to businesses and public facilities in one of California's most polluted regions.

California's Advisory Board on Air Quality and Fuels will discuss the environmental effects of shifting from gasoline to cleaner-burning transportation fuels at a three-day public workshop that begins Tuesday. The workshop will be held at the South Coast Air Quality Management District in El Monte.

Covina Councilman Henry M. Morgan has won election to the 12-member board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Morgan will represent the eastern region of Los Angeles County, including 61 cities from Long Beach to Pomona to Santa Clarita. The election late last week was forced by the departure of Leo King, who resigned as mayor of Baldwin Park and as a member of the air board.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District improperly permitted an oil refinery to implement a new industrial process without an environmental review even though the project might have caused substantially more air pollution, the California Supreme Court unanimously decided Monday. The state high court faulted the air quality district for determining that the project by ConocoPhillips Co. in Wilmington would not significantly hurt the environment. The court said the air district applied the wrong base rate when calculating the effect of the emissions.

A federal district judge will hear arguments today over whether an air-pollution control agency issued invalid emission credits to businesses and public facilities in one of California's most polluted regions.

Dangerous levels of toxic lead were emitted by a Southern California battery recycling facility for months, until regulators ordered the facility to cut production by almost half, officials said. An Exide Technologies facility in Vernon, one of just two such battery recycling facilities west of the Rockies, was emitting lead at levels nearly twice the allowable federal limits from December to April, according to South Coast Air Quality Management District staff.

State health officials are examining records and talking with Riverside County officials about testing done at a well next to a Crestmore Heights cement plant where regulators have discovered high levels of a cancer-causing toxin called hexavalent chromium. Area residents have used the well for drinking water for decades, and officials are now investigating where the residents now obtain their water. "We're taking this very seriously," said Ken August, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Health.

The air above the TXI Riverside Cement Plant was blinding white Tuesday, blocking out the blue sky. For as long as Mary Alfonso, 79, can remember, dust from the factory has been a feature of life on "the Hill" just above it. When she and her husband moved to the neighborhood near the border of Riverside and San Bernardino counties 52 years ago, they joked about its uniqueness because all the roofs were white. "Then my car turned white -- and it started out green!" said Alfonso.

In the wake of wildfires that caused unhealthful air from the mountains to the sea, the region's air quality board Friday expanded the monitoring network that allows the public immediate access to local smoke conditions. At a cost of $225,000, the South Coast Air Quality Management District will add four new sites to the existing 14 that continuously report levels of airborne particulates, plus four mobile stations that can be deployed to smoky areas.

The City Council took a stand against a proposal by the South Coast Air Quality Management District that would require public agencies to buy only clean-fueled vehicles after Jan. 1. The city prefers to wait until the price of these cars goes down, according to Monday's memo. These vehicles currently cost 10% more than their gasoline-powered counterparts. In addition, there are few fueling stations and maintenance facilities to care for these vehicles.

Area oil refineries must reduce their use of flaring to burn excess gases under restrictions approved by the board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Residents have complained for years of potential health risks when refineries vent and ignite gases. Refineries call flaring a safety measure, but a district study found that in 2003, the practice produced 2 tons of sulfur oxides daily, or as much as all the region's large diesel trucks.

Big Brother is watching your car. The South Coast Air Quality Management District is targeting vehicles in Orange County this week, using remote smog sensors to nab gross polluters -- about 10% of all vehicles on Southland roadways. AQMD officials said that because those vehicles create 50% of the smog, the state would help the owners with repair costs or pay them to scrap the vehicles.

Lenore Hittelman is in a quandary faced by many this weekend. With the air still hazy with soot from the wildfires, do you allow your children to go play? The choice is made that much harder for the Irvine mother because her oldest daughter's soccer team is scheduled to play a crucial match Sunday that could determine which division their squad will land in next season. "We know the air quality is bad, but if the team needs you, what do you do?"